Helium Nightmare

First hand experience

The day I joined Helium, my only motivation was to share some of my specific knowledge in the skin care field. My 30 years in the beauty industry had convinced me about the need to clarify some of the confusion created deliberately by the powerful world of cosmetics.

So I decided to give internet writing a try. I will never understand the absurd expectations of people who think they can actually make money by writing for any internet site. Even for the "lucky ones" the earnings amounts to pennies and, considering the time involved to write anything "half way decent", the effort is definitely not worth it.

Writing for fun or because you think you may have something of value to say is another thing altogether and if that is the case, I applaud you.

Before you take the plunge and make a contribution to Helium be warned: you are giving them exclusive control over you articles and can't manage your account or delete your own work. Even if your account is closed they still make money from your published work while you get nothing.

The frustration becomes unbearable when Helium acts as a slave driver and forces people to give up any professional and moral standards. Let me explain:

Professional standards

In a race for writing stars, quality is scarifies time and again since only quantity will give the site more to choose from and make money in the process. Specific knowledge is voted down and popular believes (no matter how inaccurate) are ruling the Helium community where folkloristic and anecdotic knowledge is king.

So much for their slogan: "where knowledge rules"

Moral standard

The even more absurd race for rating stars (the only stars that will qualify you to get paid) are forcing people to ignore the minimum decency required to make a judgment in terms of value. The only criteria for being rated up are formatting, punctuation and spelling. Content does not count; it takes too long to read and it becomes irrelevant for the ones obsessed with getting themselves another star and making a few more pennies at the expense of a fellow writer.

If all this is not bad enough, be prepared to check out your freedom of speech right before entering the Helium Inferno.

- Should you have the bad idea of voicing concerns, the Helium police will come after you with a vengeance; your articles will be deleted (they are very good at finding "reasons" for this abuse).

- Should you venture into the forums, be prepared to be insulted, called names and invited out, after they question your right to live in the city of your choice and make remarks about your nationality and the validity of your native country's contribution to the "center of the Universe".

- Should you be competing in the same title with one or more 5 stars Helium gurus, be prepared to find your articles at the bottom of the pile since their grip on stars is strong and any competition is a threat to their "prestigious" reputation

- Should you be original in your approach and not have the inclination to copy and paste from the internet, make sure you understand your article will sink fast, because the uninspired will make sure of it

- Should you have any doubt about the system being manipulated, think again

- Should you believe there is any transparency about Helium's system you are just as naive as I was

- Should you decide to join Helium anyway at least I hope you know what to expect and are ready to deal with it

One last warning: the Helium police is present in this site and looking for people who are going to eventually comment on this article, so please make sure you protect your identity and sign up with a different name so they may not identify and persecute you for your opinions. They are good at that too and is part of protecting a professional "corporate image' as I was told.

Long live and forever prosper the democratic principles.

P.S. Want more? Please read my article on "Freelance income fantasy"